In Praise of the Doughboy

The end of May marked ONO’s first year.  We had only one blog post in May of 2011, and it was one of our family signature recipes: Doughboys. June was slow going too. We posted only three recipes: my grandmother’s Dark Chocolate Gravy, a variation of my dad’s Limoncello, and a holiday favorite—French Onion Soup.  It took me a little time to get up to speed on blogging and using WordPress (to be sure, an ongoing learning process).

Things picked up in July, and, well, after that there was no stopping us. In addition to recipes, we added reviews: books, restaurants, farms and farmers markets, and speciality food stores. We enjoyed both the recipes and wit of guest bloggers Chris, Steve, and Rose. We became a featured blogger on Urbanspoon. We made many new friends in the blogging communities like eRecipeCards.com, the home for food lovers and food bloggers. Dave, I think, is one of our biggest fans, and we appreciate his thoughtful comments. (Visit eRecipeCards.com and find out “What’s Fir Dinner”.)

I got together with my mom and dad last week in celebration of ONO’s one year birthday.  We decided it was only fitting to make doughboys—the recipe that launched us.  (You can bet that we made lots of other things too.) Our family has made doughboys for generations, and I consider it to be one of our defining or signature recipes.

We generally top off our doughboys with powder sugar, but last weekend we decided to make various toppings in celebration of the doughboy. We cut the dough into many slices, flattened out each piece, and the let it rise for an additional 30 minutes or so.  Then we fried them until they were golden brown, and let them rest on paper towels just long enough to absorb the excess oil.  We dusted a bunch with powder sugar, some with cinnamon and sugar, others with regular sugar, a few with honey, and some with marinara sauce (we use left over Sunday Sauce) and freshly grated parmesan cheese. I planned to make a dark chocolate dipping sauce, but I simply ran out of time.

What’s next: For our upcoming second year, we hope to add select product reviews and food festival reviews especially those here in Florida. We’ll add more of our family recipes: home-made sausage and pepperoni, wine, and fresh food preserving. Another guest blogger or two isn’t a bad idea either. Probably most importantly, I will learn how to take a decent photo. Oh, and we recently won the opportunity to compete in the eRecipeCards.com and O Olive Oil cooking contest.  Look for our recipes soon!

We thank all who helped make ONO a promising first year.